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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30009129">House of Misfits</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/makebelieveanything/pseuds/makebelieveanything'>makebelieveanything</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>All For The Game - Nora Sakavic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AFTG Reverse Big Bang 2021, Canon-Typical Violence, Demi-God Andrew, Fantasy AU, Halfling Neil, M/M, Shapeshifter Kevin, all the bad guys die, as they should - Freeform, mentions of torture, this is much fluffier than it sounds</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 20:55:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>18,194</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30009129</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/makebelieveanything/pseuds/makebelieveanything</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where power is often used to control its wielder, and strength is something to be conquered instead of appreciated, Andrew finds himself more powerful than everyone else around him. So he uses it to his advantage, finding a home where he and his fellow misfits can find refuge. And then Neil comes along. </p>
<p>In which they all fight their demons and Neil gets a new home, and a better family.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andrew Minyard &amp; Aaron Minyard, Andrew Minyard &amp; Kevin Day, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>100</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>AFTG Reverse Big Bang 2021</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>House of Misfits</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/SanDoria/gifts">SanDoria</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>My first foray into the world of Fantasy AUs. The stunning art is courtesy of <a href="https://twitter.com/san_doria">@san_doria</a></p>
<p>As always, a huge shoutout to Zan for completely tearing this apart when I needed help, and to Sam and Deya and anyone else I coerced into reading this for me. I love you all dearly.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Depending on how you looked at it, trouble and Andrew were a package deal. It was unclear whether trouble always found Andrew, or Andrew always found trouble; either way, the two were never far apart.</p>
<p>This wasn’t to say that Andrew <i>caused</i> trouble - although people who didn’t know him assumed the trouble was always of his making - he just happened to put himself in the middle of it regardless if that was his original design or intention.</p>
<p>This time, Andrew and Kevin had been gone from the house for all of five days - which in the grand scheme of Andrew’s lifespan was the equivalent of roughly five seconds - when they ran across their most current problem. This may have been a record for both of them.</p>
<p>Kevin flew through the air with a speed unattainable to most creatures. His large, powerful wings were created specifically for speed and strength, his heavily-muscled hind legs tucked up tight to his scaled, muscular chest so as to not drag as he flew, and his dragon-like tail - the end covered with gleaming, pointed spikes that could pierce through an entire male centaur - provided balance and guided his movements, giving him the agility most creatures his size lacked. Kevin himself was an enigma, but the conglomeration of animals that he had pulled together to create the magnificent form he occupied now, along with the speed and height at which he liked to fly, was awe inspiring - even to Andrew.</p>
<p>Even after centuries of dealing with his fear, the terrifying thrill in Andrew’s stomach never eased as he watched the ground below shrink away, the trees turning into shrubs in his mind’s eye before he sharpened his vision to account for the distance as they continued to climb. Only when they’d reached the pinnacle of Kevin’s resistance, when the air had become so thin that Andrew had to remind himself not to panic, Kevin would in his massive wings, let his body tilt to the side, and fall. Sometimes it was only for a short distance before snapping out his wings again to coast lazily through the clouds; sometimes they just tumbled gracelessly, the pull of gravity dragging them inevitably towards the earth; sometimes, like that evening, Kevin would tuck himself in tight, corkscrewing faster and faster and faster towards the ground, before pulling up at the very last minute, stretching the muscles and tendons that ran along the length of his wings to the breaking point.</p>
<p>The first time Kevin pulled that last trick Andrew thought he was either trying to kill both of them, or he was completely insane, both real possibilities heralded by Kevin’s loud screeching cry into the darkness of the night. Now, however, Andrew knew that trick for what it really was: a test of strength, a feat of prowess, something to prove to Kevin - and to anyone watching him - that he was powerful, he was free, and he would never be made to feel weak again.</p>
<p>As they corkscrewed towards the ground, Andrew’s eyes squeezed shut even as his mind’s eye magically watched the ground come closer and closer at a frightening speed. Just this once, Andrew was glad for his mental awareness as in the final seconds before Kevin would bail out of their nose dive, they both noticed a creature shuffling along the shadows that lined the road - a dangerous, tilted sway to his steps. Andrew barely had time to realize that Kevin was adjusting his flight path before bracing himself for impact with the hard earth, Kevin’s powerful back legs taking the brunt of the shock even as the residual energy slid through his body, up through the tips of Andrew’s ears, and rippled down along the dirt path below them.</p>
<p>The tremor from their landing was enough to knock the stumbling creature off his feet. It was almost pathetic the way the creature faltered - hands pinwheeling haphazardly beside him, tail snapping out in an attempt to re-balance - but when that failed, Andrew watched in fascination as the creature’s tail wrapped tightly around his body curling his form into a ball, his body rolling gracefully as he hit the ground.</p>
<p>Despite his evident fatigue and weakness, the creature snapped immediately back to his feet, ears twitching to either side even as his sharp eyes narrowed on Kevin and Andrew conspicuously standing in the middle of the road behind him where seconds earlier nothing had been.</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>“What the hell is your problem?” the halfling asked belligerently, crossing his arms tightly over his chest in a move that may look territorial or offended to some, but Andrew recognized from years of experience as a defensive mechanism; a show of bravado to cover whatever injuries could be used against him as weaknesses.</p>
<p>Kevin’s response was a gruff screech, a sound Andrew interpreted as general annoyance even without hearing the mental dialogue that accompanied it, <i>“What’s our problem? We’re not the ones stumbling along a dirt road in the middle of the night half dead, dumbass.”</i></p>
<p>“Where are you off to?” Andrew asked, curiosity stirring even as he wished they could simply dismiss the halfling and continue on their way.</p>
<p>“Don’t see how it’s any of your business,” the halfling said.</p>
<p>“It is because I’m the one asking,” Andrew replied.</p>
<p>“And who exactly are you to be asking? My fairy godmother? Knight in shining armour? Goddamn angel of life or something? God?”</p>
<p>“Something like that,” Andrew allowed. “Although you’re more likely to meet the angel of death in the state you’re in.”</p>
<p>“I don’t need your judgement,” the halfling responded, all sass and fire and a level of haughtiness that rivaled Andrew’s own. An admirable skill considering Andrew had refined his over centuries of practice.</p>
<p>“What’s your name, halfling?” Andrew asked, ignoring Kevin’s growl as it skittered over his skin, a wholly unrealistic sound to have come from a bird/dinosaur/raptor thing, the power behind it causing the hair on the halfling’s head to stand on end as his ears and tail twitched reflexively.</p>
<p>He was clearly not going to make this easy.</p>
<p>“It’s Neil, now what do you want?” Neil asked angrily, the whipping of his tail behind him the only real indication of his internal agitation.</p>
<p>“We want to help you. You’ll be dead along the side of the road if you keep this up,” Andrew replied evenly, reminding himself that one self-obsessed idiot should not be enough to rile his carefully cultivated patience and general apathetic nature.</p>
<p>“I don’t need your help. Fuck off,” Neil responded easily, starting to spin on one heel as if he would simply turn his back on two complete strangers and walk away.</p>
<p>As if he could, without any problems.</p>
<p>The sheer stupidity and courage that took aggravated Andrew immensely.</p>
<p>Andrew took a step forward when Neil glanced behind him, hoping to get close enough to have a conversation with the halfling rather than a screaming match in the middle of the road.</p>
<p>The step cost him. Neil’s head whipped around, his ears twitching towards Andrew as if they’d heard every piece of dirt and gravel that shuffled under his boots.</p>
<p>“Calm down, we aren’t here to hurt you, we just want to hel-”</p>
<p>Andrew’s words were cut off as Neil yanked his hands out from where they had been protectively shielded by his billowing orange sleeves, and Andrew finally noticed the cursed, purplish black marks that marred the skin of his hands and forearms. Neil hovered both arms in front of him, one hand cupped over the other as if he was holding a secret in between his palms - the gesture stilted and frantic.</p>
<p>Then Neil froze, the fingers of either hand paused, tilting in towards each other, one pinky splayed out like the leg of a spinning ballerina caught in mid-pirouette. His sharp eyes met Andrew’s suspiciously, the rest of his body completely still, a snapshot in time.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t try that if I were you, we both know what will happen and it’s useless on me anyways,” Andrew drawled quietly, not even bothering to lift his hands, or even a finger, nothing to indicate the miniscule fraction of his tremendous power it took to completely immobilize someone.</p>
<p>“If it wouldn’t harm you, then why bother stopping me?” Neil spat back, the fear starting to show as the whites of his eyes slowly grew larger and larger pulling his ice blue irises into contracted points.</p>
<p>“Because I can, without even lifting a finger,” Andrew replied haughtily, enjoying the upper hand, the thrill of a challenge even though there wasn’t one at all. He could hear Kevin in his mind telling him: <i>“Don’t taunt the dumbass,” “we all know you’re a super powerful deity Andrew pull it together,”</i> and, <i>“if you don’t stop fighting someone’s going to find us eventually,”</i> and finally, <i>“even you won’t like the people who are probably after Nathaniel here.”</i></p>
<p><i>“Nathaniel, huh?”</i> Andrew shot back at him, ignoring the rest of Kevin’s tirade. Kevin’s only response was to stamp a heavily clawed paw into the ground, the slice of his sharp talons digging turrets in the road.</p>
<p>“Meanwhile, you can’t even cast a decent spell without using two hands,” Andrew continued out loud, refusing to release even a small measure of the control he held over Neil’s - or Nathaniel’s, apparently - arms.</p>
<p>“Fuck. You.”</p>
<p>Neil struggled, mentally and physically, against Andrew’s control of his body. A struggle that was entirely invisible, and entirely ineffective; a small wave throwing itself against a tsunami, a sea wall trying to stand up against a category 5 hurricane, a half blooded sorcerer-halfling against a minor deity.</p>
<p>And still Neil kept fighting, throwing all his willpower and remaining strength against Andrew’s iron clad control until he literally burned himself into unconsciousness. The fight skittered from his body as it collapsed in on itself in a dead faint, Andrew’s power the only thing keeping Neil upright.</p>
<p>That’s when Andrew noticed the dark stains spreading across Neil’s chest and through the sleeves of his shirt, only noticeable now that he was paying attention to the blue blood as it dripped down Neil’s cursed hands.</p>
<p>Andrew was an absolute idiot for not having realized sooner. Neil’s curse wasn’t the only thing he’d been trying to hide.</p><hr/>
<p>The rafters shook with the weight of Kevin’s landing, sending tremors through the entire house, ominous creaks skittering in their wake. The raptor’s gleaming talons gouged small slices out of the wooden beams that always eerily repaired themselves between flights, and his massive feather-scaled wings scraped the edges of the open support beams as they tucked themselves into his sides with a practiced precision. Kevin’s wings left just enough space for Andrew to slide down them like ramps to the straw covered floor, the blood covered bundle of limbs that was their newest rescue cradled safely in his arms.</p>
<p>Andrew didn’t bother to open doors on his way down from the attic, striding purposefully down halls as doors swung open before him of their own accord, leading him like breadcrumbs through the house. The house was constantly changing, and Andrew - even with his eidetic memory and hundreds of years living there - wasn’t able to recall a time when the doors or the halls had ever been in the same configuration more than once.</p>
<p>(Because they hadn’t been, and never would be.)</p>
<p>Doors opened and hallways twisted of their own accord, and when Andrew ended up in one of the many guest bedrooms it had already outfitted itself with all the medical supplies his twin could possibly need. The bed was draped in disposable sheeting, and Aaron himself was standing beside it, methodically pulling sterile gloves on.</p>
<p>Aaron always appeared when Andrew, or someone he saved, needed him - as if he possessed a sixth sense for when his medical expertise was needed. Andrew sometimes thought it was just a part of their similar, deity-esque powers; Aaron always had better control of the power anyways, and Andrew hated its unpredictability with every fiber of his being. The more likely scenario was that something - be it their blood bond as twins, their shared ancestry, or Renee in her spritely wisdom - called him when help was needed. Whatever the reason, Andrew couldn’t deny the rush of gratitude he felt whenever Aaron appeared. The easy confidence his brother exuded immediately calmed Andrew’s nerves, and he carefully placed the barely breathing halfling on the bed.</p>
<p>Andrew threw up a protective shield on the whole house as Aaron transformed - dropping the guise of pale, fragile, human skin, bleach blonde hair, and striking hazel eyes they both held like precious masks before their dietetic appearance - until he shone with a soft, blue light that radiated from him with a biting warmth. The incandescent light spread over his skin and hair and nails, covering even his simple clothing choices in a shimmering glow as Aaron’s hands hovered outstretched over the prone body before them.</p>
<p>Andrew watched as Aaron started to heal their newest rescue, half in awe at his brother’s control and comfort with the magic that Andrew had also mastered, but would never be able to use with the ease Aaron did. Aaron’s actions were smooth, the magic steady, and Andrew stood back, trusting him to do the best he could with injuries that Andrew was sure were far more extensive than he was even aware of. In his head, Kevin’s thoughts drifted in with a quiet rumble, <i>“How’s Nathaniel?”</i></p>
<p>(Or Neil, as the young hafling currently attempting to bleed out on the bed had called himself.)</p>
<p>This rescue had a name, something most of the creatures Andrew and Kevin saved didn’t have, or refused to give. In their world, an untold number of magical beings could control a creature with their name alone, yet Neil had given his freely - even if it wasn’t his real one according to Kevin. Andrew could tell from the taste of the name on his tongue that “Neil” still had enough power and importance behind it to at least partially control the halfling. The more sentimental, the more powerful; this was a magical rule Andrew had learned long ago, and was just another reason why he had refused to invest his own emotions into caring about anything at all until he knew he possessed and controlled the power to protect it.</p>
<p>And then, once he had cultivated that power, he provided a safe harbor for anyone like himself who needed it. Misfits, the lost souls of the magical universe, the spirits and creatures and cast offs who had been abused and forgotten and misplaced by the world and anyone who should have cared about them.</p>
<p>This old mansion was the epicenter of the safe harbor Andrew provided, almost a castle in it’s fortress-esque construction, and like all magical things, it had its quirks. Legends said that anyone who entered it in the last couple centuries had never come back out, but Andrew had walked in one day - half out of desperation, and half out of sheer disregard for his own safety - and had made it his home. It had been many millennia since the house last met a creature that held such glorious, wonderful, terrifying power in his hands yet refused to use anything but the smallest magic. The house understood the emotions that ran under Andrew’s surface as surely as it understood the ancient power that flooded his veins; it was because of this understanding that the house itself, contrary to every rule it had ever learned in it’s millenia of existence, had tied itself to Andrew. Willing to let go of a never-ending future for the chance to experience the world from his point of view, if even for the limited centuries he would be alive.</p>
<p>Thus, when Andrew mentally answered Kevin, their mind-to-mind communication a simple thing after decades of experience, the house listened, and learned, and loved them both for the beauty of it.</p>
<p><i>“Aaron’s here already, of course. We lost his heartbeat for a bit there, but it’s back and his color is beginning to return,”</i> Andrew told Kevin, promising to bring up some food and fresh straw for him soon.</p>
<p><i>“Don’t mind me, I can wait. Just make sure that idiot survives so I can give him a piece of my mind,”</i> Kevin responded, the growl behind his words chasing through Andrew’s mind even as silence still settled over the guest room while Aaron worked. Kevin had recognized Neil as a young halfling-sorcerer that he had met long ago; a bright spot in the dark abyss that was Kevin’s childhood.</p>
<p><i>“He is shockingly self-sacrificing for someone who is supposedly running for his life,”</i> Andrew agreed, chuckling darkly at the stupidity and sheer tenacity that he hadn’t witnessed in anyone since Allison three centuries ago.</p>
<p>Allison was one of the misfits Andrew had saved, a nymph who had been trapped as an ornate door fixture - long outliving the other creatures of her clan - now freed to roam the halls of the house alongside Renee, an elemental sprite who spent most of her time happily guarding and devouring the knowledge Andrew had stored in his library.</p>
<p>Tenacity was a trait most creatures of this world hadn’t seen in millenia; Neil, or Nathaniel, had it in spades. So Andrew watched as Aaron did his best to save the idiot’s life, and when he’d done everything he could they left him to fate’s mercy under the watchful eye of the house, hoping that tenacity would be enough to pull him safely from the string between life and death he was currently balancing on.</p><hr/>
<p>No one expected Neil to wake up, least of all Neil, and most definitely not within less than a day of his near death adventure - so no one noticed when he woke and slipped out of the sick room. (Or so Neil thought.)</p>
<p>He pushed himself stiffly out of the bed he was laying in, surreptitiously checking his surroundings. His ears twitched minutely, listening for sounds of anyone nearby, any evidence of the people who had brought him here, whether to save him or capture him, he didn’t know.</p>
<p>Neil inventoried his injuries as he searched the room for a shirt, finding a soft long sleeve tucked in a chest of drawers to pull on over the scars that covered his bare torso. (He vaguely remembered his old one getting removed in the haze that was his memory of the night before, and Neil missed the orange tunic with its billowing sleeves and ornately stitched, white detailing.) There was a dull ache in his side where his punctured lung and broken ribs were still protesting the early movement, but not enough to indicate they’d been set only the night before.</p>
<p>Neil knew he hadn’t been out for longer than a day, but he also knew even his father’s magic in his blood wasn’t enough to speed his healing this much. Maybe the blond asshole had actually helped him like he claimed; Neil still wasn’t particularly willing to wait around to find out.</p>
<p>His father’s magic had healed the open cuts along his arms and even the large gash along his stomach; the one silver lining to an otherwise horrid gift from an equally horrid man. Neil preferred the gift of agility and silent feet he’d received from his mother’s blood, especially as he snuck down the hallway, listening for any sign of other life in the house. Finally he found a window overlooking a stretch of lawn, the house surrounded by a small clearing that connected to a forest of unfamiliar trees.</p>
<p>He definitely wasn’t on the road to Alyeria anymore. He wasn’t anywhere specific at all, from what he could discern.</p>
<p>Still Neil could tell he was at least near the top of the house and needed to work his way down if he was going to find the front door, or even a window close enough to the ground for him to jump without breaking any limbs.</p>
<p>Neil glimpsed one half-open door to his right. He slipped through it soundlessly, making sure his feet didn’t catch on any creaky boards, and avoiding the edges with his slim shoulders in case the hinges gave off a telltale screech.</p>
<p>He made it three steps before the door slammed shut behind him of its own accord.</p>
<p>The hallway before him started to stretch, the doors that had originally appeared on either side of the hallway moving farther and farther away from Neil every second, and Neil had no choice but to take off after them.</p>
<p>He ran, and he ran, and he ran. Neil was good at running - in fact, between his mother’s blood and the years of practice, Neil was very good at running - but he wasn’t closing the distance between him and the doors. They just kept stretching out in front of him, taunting him but never coming noticeably closer.</p>
<p>So Neil kept running.</p>
<p>And when he did finally catch up to one of the doors, it wouldn’t open, as if it was permanently nailed shut; not even the latch creaked as he yanked on the ornately carved handle. Desperately Neil tried the next door, and it flew open at his yank only to reveal a completely walled off entrance, cold stone meeting Neil’s outstretched hand.</p>
<p>Despite the frustrating futility of his search, the cold barriers and locked rooms didn’t fill Neil with the sense of foreboding he would have expected. There was a sense of safety, of security even, in the warmly lit hallway, as if it seeped out of the very timbers of the walls.</p>
<p>So Neil kept running, pulling uselessly at some doors, yanking open others to find impenetrable walls glaring back at him, as if they had a mind of their own and an extremely infuriating sense of humor, yet somehow he didn’t lose hope as he got no closer to finding an exit and wandering out into the potential danger of the outside world.</p>
<p>Finally though, Neil found a door that was already open, and he stumbled through it, not even bothering to look where he was going as he took the first glimpse of escape he could find.</p>
<p>This place was a demented fun house - reminding Neil of the carnivals that came to town in the spring when he was a kid, their giant topped tents filled with mirrors and passages of all shapes and sizes, half of which ended in dead ends. Back then the maze-like tents had been a welcomed escape from his day to day life, now it seemed eerily controlled; like a sentient, concentrated attempt to keep Neil turned around and confined within these walls.</p>
<p>Neil ran through the door and barely skittered to a halt centimeters away from tumbling face first down a massive flight of stairs that curved elegantly, the banister tucked into a wall that was filled top to bottom in shelves upon shelves of books.</p>
<p>Neil finally took a second to pull in a much needed breath of air, swiveling his head around the new room he was in, his tail tucked securely around one banister just in case the stairs decided to spontaneously move, or become a slide, or something equally ridiculous.</p>
<p>Sunlight in a fractal of colors covered the open room from large, mosaic, stained-glass, egress windows spaced along the top of the tall walls; a kaleidoscope of shapes and colors covering the books and shelves, ladders and staircases, tables and couches that lined the walls and hard-wood floors. Outside of the devastatingly warm and inviting sunlight, Neil glimpsed the waving green of grass, his ears catching the faint rustle of field mice even through the window panes.</p>
<p>It was only then he realized he was below ground now when not minutes earlier he’d been at least five stories above it. What the actual fuck?</p><hr/>
<p>Andrew spent the night curled up in the armchair that occupied one corner of his massive, master-bedroom suite, nursing a glass of a strong, crimson colored liquor and silently keeping watch while his brother slept peacefully in the nearby bed.</p>
<p>As the size of the room more than allowed for it, the bed was big enough for at least four or five creatures to sleep in it without touching, but Andrew always stayed up and kept watch while Aaron slept after transforming. He knew, logically, that the house would never let anything inside that meant him, or his brother, or his charges any harm, but that didn’t stop the ingrained paranoia that plagued him into a sleepless night keeping watch.</p>
<p>Aaron slept like the dead after transforming, unaware of the world around him, and unlikely to wake up if there was trouble, which there never was.</p>
<p>It was only as the warm rays of sunlight started streaming through his window that Kevin’s gruff voice floated through Andrew’s mind saying, <i>“Sleep, Andrew. I will wake you if anything happens.”</i></p>
<p>Kevin’s roost dominated the top floor where the house had relinquished a portion of the roof, leaving the uncovered beams and rafters for easy landing and take off. The attic space allowed for a straw covered nest where Kevin could curl his oversized wings into his half scaled, half feathered body for warmth when the chill of winter fell on their remote home. It also conveniently gave him a clear view of the house, the clearing, and some of the forest that surrounded it. Even though no dangerous animals ever wandered out of the forest - as if the house’s protections stretched all the way to the edge of the clearing, it’s foundation bleeding into the roots of the forest itself - Andrew and Kevin both knew that didn’t mean danger didn’t exist in the forest that surrounded them.</p>
<p>But Andrew trusted Kevin with his own life and that of his brother too, so he mumbled, <i>“Thank you,”</i> and downed the rest of his drink before pulling the blanket off the chair behind him and up to his chin, promptly falling asleep.</p><hr/>
<p>It wasn’t Kevin, or Andrew, or even Aaron who found Neil first, but Renee - not that Neil knew that.</p>
<p>Neil systematically tried all the doors in the library, and all the latches on the windows, pulling chairs or tables to the ones he couldn’t reach to try and get the latches to pop so he could climb out. Of course, none of them opened.</p>
<p>Finally Neil grabbed the heaviest book he could find, an older looking tome with embossed, golden letters down the spine in a language Neil couldn’t read, and went to throw it at the nearest window.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, the house won’t like it,” a voice said smoothly from behind him right as Neil’s fingers were about to let go of the book. He barely managed to stop himself, using his momentum instead to spin around and find the owner of that voice.</p>
<p>There was no one behind him, just the lingering echo of the words as they seemed to seep into the books themselves while simultaneously reverberating off the glass like the sunlight.</p>
<p>“Who’s there?” Neil asked, hoping against logic that he would get an actual answer.</p>
<p>He was, of course, met with silence.</p><hr/>
<p>
  <i>“Andrew.”</i>
</p>
<p>The voice in his mind was what pulled Andrew out of his sleep hours later, enough time having passed that the sun was well past midday.</p>
<p><i>“Andrew,”</i> came his name again, Kevin calling to him as softly as his deep rumble would allow.</p>
<p><i>“I’m awake,”</i> Andrew replied sleepily, rubbing the grit from his eyes and the drool from his chin.</p>
<p><i>“We had company, but they didn’t get very far,”</i> Kevin replied, the undertone carrying a sense of smugness as he shared his view with Andrew, showing him the tree line outside the back of the house where two bodies lay dead. They were wrapped from toe to chin in roots and vines, the color drained from their skin which appeared dull and ashen against the bright lush green of leaves and crawling vines that blossomed around them.</p>
<p><i>“Too bad you didn’t get to eat them,”</i> Andrew responded. <i>“Then you wouldn’t have to go hunting today.”</i></p>
<p><i>“Blech, wolf-folk, too stringy anyways. Plus they always taste like wet dog,”</i> Kevin replied haughtily.</p>
<p><i>“Right, standards. I’ll be down in a minute, meet you there,”</i> Andrew said, pulling himself out of his warm cocoon of blankets and going to wake Aaron before he slept the entire day away.</p><hr/>
<p>Neil heard the voice a few more times as he wandered the library: warning him not to touch certain books, followed by a scorching heat radiating from the spines when he went to pick one up anyways; informing him, incessantly, when he tried to put a book back in the wrong spot, and then an invisible force that pulled the books back out and dropped them with a loud thud onto the floor when Neil ignored it. The only helpful thing the invisible spirit did was find Neil’s orange tunic for him, which appeared crisp, clean, and folded on a table sometime between his fourth and fifth round of the library.</p>
<p>Finally Neil stopped trying to talk back, or to find the spirit, choosing rather to curl up in one of the cushioned arm chairs and wait for someone to find him.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Andrew did, eventually. He was walking past the library windows towards the tree line to meet Kevin, black mid-calf high boots kicking up grasshoppers and other summer bugs as he trudged through the grass, when he heard a banging on the glass.</p>
<p>Turning to find the source, he shook his head at the fiery haired runaway from last night who appeared trapped in the underground library. Figures.</p>
<p>Andrew stepped over and easily unlatched one of the windows, pushing it open slightly.<br/>
“And what are you up to, rabbit?” he asked mockingly.</p>
<p>“Just trying to get out of your house of horrors,” Neil said blithely, eyeing the gap between the window and Andrew as if he could slip out before Andrew shoved him back inside.</p>
<p>“Not my house, the house belongs to itself, I just live here,” Andrew replied easily.</p>
<p>“Well the house fucking hates me. Will you let me out, or am I just going to stay imprisoned down here all day?”</p>
<p>“Hmm, I will, but favor for a favor,” Andrew said.</p>
<p>“How is you letting me out of a house you brought me to in the first place a favor?” Neil demanded, annoyed despite his desperation to get out of there.</p>
<p>“Well, we did save your life,” Andrew added.</p>
<p>“Fuck, fine, what’s your favor?” Neil agreed, grudgingly. Andrew almost outright asked Neil to stay as his favor, but in the end he knew the halfling had to make that choice himself. Andrew didn’t even know why he so desperately wanted Neil to stay, but curiosity still niggled at Andrew; a curiosity Andrew couldn’t shake, as if it was an ingrained instinct to protect Neil. So instead, he simply used his favor to buy himself more time - whether to convince Neil to stay, or just to try and figure him out, Andrew wasn’t sure.</p>
<p>“I let you out, and instead of running you come help me investigate the two bodies we just found out here.”</p>
<p>“Bodies?” Neil asked, and Andrew couldn’t tell if the emotion behind his voice was fear or curiosity, or some unhealthy combination of the two.</p>
<p>“Bodies,” Andrew repeated. “Wolf-hybrids to be exact.”</p>
<p>Andrew watched as Neil paled slightly, the bright flush of his skin, although looking much healthier than the night before, starting to slowly resemble the sickened shadow they’d found on the side of the road.</p>
<p>“Fine,” Neil agreed and Andrew stepped back, holding the window open for the halfling to easily slip out.</p>
<p>“Let’s go,” Neil said, starting off in the direction Andrew nodded, Andrew following a couple steps behind him in case he decided to run after all.</p>
<p>The bodies weren’t hard to spot, between the upheaval of the earth around them and the giant shape of Kevin; his bright colors screaming <i>predator</i> as the sun glanced off his scales and directly into Andrew and Neil’s eyes.</p>
<p>For someone who had been three quarters dead not more than eighteen hours ago, Neil was extremely agile, leaping over the ruts in the earth where the roots had forcibly yanked themselves from their earthen homes to wrap around their prizes.</p>
<p>Andrew knew what state they’d find the bodies in, but that didn’t account for seeing them in person; a mental image didn’t accomodate for smell after all. Decay wrapped heavily around them, blanketing Andrew’s senses in rot and death, a surprise considering the bodies had been dead for only a couple hours at best. Andrew watched as Neil didn’t hesitate to step up close to the two bodies, the smell that had to be affecting his delicate senses far more than either Kevin or Andrew apparently not a deterrent to his investigation.</p>
<p>Watching as closely as he was, Andrew still almost missed the grimace that flashed for only a second across Neil’s face before an apathetically blank mask took its place. If he knew where to look, he could see it still in the tense set of Neil’s shoulders, the wrinkles around the corners of his eyes, and the twitching of his ears listening intently to every snap of a twig and gust of wind through the branches.</p>
<p>“Anyone familiar?” Andrew asked quietly, watching Neil’s face for any signs of recognition or deceit, but the mask stayed on.</p>
<p>“Nope. Sucky way to end though,” Neil replied easily.</p>
<p>“Can’t say finding random bodies is a normal occurrence for us, yet you’ve been here less than a day and two show up,” Andrew mused.</p>
<p>“Interesting coincidence,” Neil agreed, turning a sharp smile on Andrew; it held little warmth, and the pointed tips of Neil’s canines peeking out below his upper lip seemed eerily like a threat - and a promise.</p>
<p>“Mmm,” Andrew hummed in agreement, amused.</p>
<p>“With that house of yours, and the power you have, you must have loads of people that want to kill you,” Neil said. “I can’t be the first you took hostage, anyways. You sure they aren’t coming back for you?”</p>
<p>Kevin growled at the threat lacing Neil’s words, but Andrew just laughed. Neil’s audacity was enlightening, and intriguing, and only made the simmering interest in Andrew’s gut grow a little more.</p>
<p>“I’ve had centuries to make enemies, little halfling, don’t believe for a second your posturing can scare me.”</p>
<p>“Centuries, huh? That’s a long time for someone who looks so young. I wonder what shape that power of yours takes when you don’t have it so tightly wrapped,” Neil said.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t be so quick to find out if I were you,” Andrew replied easily, letting just enough of that iron-clad grip on his power slip, a slight blue glow filling his eyes with steel, just the tiniest bit slipping to swirl invisibly in the air around them, assaulting Neil’s delicate senses.</p>
<p>“And what if I do, you’ll kill me? I’m your hostage anyways, die now or die later,” Neil sneered back, the look belying the tightening around his eyes that Andrew knew meant he was afraid.</p>
<p>“You’re free to go whenever you want, you’re not chained here are you?” Andrew asked, reeling the power back in and tamping it down completely. Ignoring the oily feeling on his skin that it left behind in its wake.</p>
<p>Neil eyed Andrew suspiciously, then Kevin, his eyes darting between them even as he still stood next to the bodies of people Andrew was sure were after Neil.</p>
<p>“So, I can just walk away?” Neil asked disbelieving.</p>
<p>“Sure, you’re all fixed up. Although I’m sure the doctor would prefer you rested for a bit, nothing is stopping you from leaving,” Andrew agreed. He ignored Kevin in his mind as he said, <i>“Aaron would definitely not agree with that assessment,”</i> and simultaneously ignored his own instincts as they screamed at him not to let Neil walk away.</p>
<p>“And you won’t follow me?”</p>
<p>“Why would I, what do I need you for? We were only trying to help, but by all means, run along. Try not to get murdered by anyone else who comes looking for you before you get off my property.</p>
<p>“Come on Kevin, I’ll burn these later, let's get you some food,” Andrew said aloud, for Neil’s benefit, before he hopped on Kevin’s outstretched wing and gave Neil a two fingered salute in dismissal.</p>
<p>Andrew didn’t look back to see if the halfling even waited for them to get into the air before running off into the trees - likely not if Kevin’s annoyed huff was anything to go by. As it was, Andrew barely found the ability to walk away himself; he knew if he looked back he would probably do something stupid that really would cause trouble.</p>
<p><i>“You know he’s going to get killed out there,”</i> Kevin berated Andrew as they climbed higher, cresting the tree tops and leveling out to float amongst the clouds.</p>
<p><i>“What do you expect me to do about it, Kevin? He doesn’t want our help. I won’t force him to stay if he doesn’t want to,”</i> Andrew replied, laying down on Kevin’s broad back, his arms outstretched to either side as he let his fingers drag through the cold mist of the clouds that surrounded them.</p>
<p><i>“I know what he’s running from Andrew, maybe he doesn’t see any other way out?”</i> Kevin answered quietly, clearly thinking of his own past, his own escape, his own horrors.</p>
<p><i>“Is it the same people?”</i> Andrew asked, sending a wave of calm behind his words into Kevin’s mind, hoping to give him some comfort even if he didn’t verbally know how to express it.</p>
<p><i>“An offshoot, yes, his father is a sorcerer that the Moriyamas adopted to do their dirty work,”</i> Kevin told Andrew, a mental image of an older man, a more human appearance, but the same auburn hair and ice blue eyes as Neil. <i>“If he’s on the run from his father, he’s running from the Moriyamas too.”</i> Andrew clearly felt the shudder than ran through Kevin’s skin when he thought of the Moriyamas, but he didn’t comment. They both knew the Moriyama clan was brutal, unremorseful, and extremely powerful. They’d basically taken over complete control of the northeast in the last few decades, and the blight of their reign only seemed to stretch further across the continent as the years progressed.</p>
<p><i>“Well, hopefully he’s good at running,”</i> Andrew replied, knowing it wasn’t a solution. But throughout the centuries there was one rule he had never broken, and he didn’t plan on changing that now. He used his power to offer help and sanctuary to those who needed it. The ones like Andrew and Aaron - forgotten or mistreated by their own parents before getting thrown into the world - completely unaware of what they were capable of. And the ones like Kevin, and Renee, and Allison who learned the hard way that the world did not look kindly towards the unique and powerful. Lesser powerful beings relied on the control they had over others, and power to them was not a sign of strength, just something to be conquered.</p>
<p>Andrew’s one rule was: he never forced his help on creatures who didn’t want it. He was neither judge, nor jury, and he wouldn’t allow the horrors of this world to make him into one of them by using his power for his own revenge or internalized sense of justice.</p>
<p>Sometimes that meant vulnerable, innocent creatures died, but at least they had a choice.</p><hr/>
<p>Andrew and Kevin stayed away from the house for the evening, camping in a cave that opened from the face of a small mountain a few leagues from the house. It was a favorite of theirs, the mouth just big enough for Kevin to fit through if he crouched, but opening up into a cavernous space inside to accommodate his wings and tail while still leaving enough room for a fire. On nights like these, Andrew usually forwent his bedroll and ended up leaning against Kevin’s flank, one wing draped over his legs and shoulders creating an insulated cocoon.</p>
<p>Andrew was not good with touch from most creatures, but the feel of Kevin’s even breath, and the subtle shifting of muscles in his legs, only reminded Andrew how powerful the being behind him was. If anyone was going to watch his back, Kevin was a good choice for it based on sheer strength alone. Even the fragility of the feathers that lined Kevin’s wings, and the delicate membrane and vertebrae underneath, only added to Andrew’s sense of comfort. That wing - with all its delicate looking feathers and thin visible bones - was strong enough to hold Kevin and Andrew in the air, strong enough to help Kevin escape the captivity of his childhood.</p>
<p>They fell asleep easily, glutted on rare mountain sheep and roasted hare, the fire popping away merrily in front of the cave, only visible to Andrew and Kevin as Andrew had put up a barrier around the entrance to hide the light. When they woke, Andrew’d almost forgotten they’d spent the last day trying to save someone who wasn’t ready to be saved. He’d almost forgotten the russett curls that looped gently around Neil’s fox-like ears, their delicate points inviting Andrew to run a finger along the tip. He’d almost forgotten the electric blue eyes that reminded him too much of his own divine form; eyes that shown with an immense strength, tenacity, and stubbornness.</p>
<p>He’d <i>almost forgotten</i>, but Andrew never truly forgot anything in this form.</p>
<p>The pair opted for a lazy flight through the mountains before heading for home, knowing that once they returned Kevin would have to spend a couple days in his human form and they wouldn’t be able to leave the house for at least a week.</p>
<p>It was still light out when they got back, the sun just starting to dip below the trees as the dusky sunset cast dappled shadows across the lawn in glowing hues of pinks and oranges. The patchwork of evening light almost completely obscured the four people fighting their way through the tree line and towards the house, one sprinting ahead of the rest in a blur of red and orange against the green grass.</p>
<p>Andrew barely had enough time to think, <i>“Neil!”</i> before Kevin was nose-diving for the ground at an eye-watering speed. Despite how fast Kevin could fly, they were just far enough away that Andrew knew they weren’t going to get there in time. It would be mere seconds difference, but at this speed Andrew couldn’t see the people trying to attack Neil, had no idea what kind of creatures they were or what charms they may have on them. He knew if he fired any of his magic without transforming he was more likely to hit Neil in the crossfire.</p>
<p>The impact point happened before Andrew could cross the mental barriers he always had up between this form and his other one; Neil made it to the house, yanking the door open just as one of the creature’s claws caught on the back of his shirt ripping large holes down the back and undoubtedly catching the delicate skin beneath. Neil turned there in the doorway, the tatters of his shirt flying out behind him like the tails on a kite, and thrust his arms flat over each other, mimicking the spell he’d tried on Andrew only three days earlier but this one was simpler, quicker, and allowed for way less control.</p>
<p>The one who had caught Neil in the back was pulling himself up on the bottom step of the porch where he had fallen in his dive to catch Neil before he got to the house, the other two barely a step behind, and Neil let go - channeling all his father’s blood magic through his arms and into the attackers in front of him, knocking them to the grass at least five feet from him.</p>
<p>No sooner had the blast of power left him before Neil collapsed through the doorway into the front entry, the door slammed shut behind him.</p>
<p>Andrew watched the progression of events in stunned shock: the house opening to Neil when it had never opened to anyone except Andrew in the past; Neil channeling the magic Andrew had warned him against using towards the three people pursuing him; Neil’s body collapsing as soon as the magic left his arms, the door of the house slamming shut on any sign to show if Neil was alive or dead.</p>
<p>And in his mind, Andrew screamed.</p>
<p>It was echoed by Kevin’s distressed roar, the sound shaking the ground as they landed in the clearing. The door may as well have been an entire realm between Andrew and the person he was desperate to save. The house had never betrayed Andrew before, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to set fire to the timbers, smash open the glass panes of the front windows, chop down the door itself until all that was left were the hinges.</p>
<p>He didn’t understand why the house would hide Neil from him, and the ferocity of his fury scared the hell out of Andrew.</p>
<p>The creature who had caught Neil at the end was the only one of the three to turn around at Andrew and Kevin’s landing, the other two still pushing to their feet from where Neil’s attack had left them sprawled along the yard. He was at least half goblin if the grotesque skin and short stature were any indication, but the bushy hair that ran down his head and disappeared into the collar of his shirt along with the threateningly sharp talons extending from his hands indicated he was also at least part werewolf.</p>
<p>Andrew didn’t particularly care, no matter which he identified as; they were both creatures hired for muscle and brute violence, but not inherently intelligent nor known for their magical abilities. Andrew clambered to a standing position, bracing his feet against the juts where Kevin’s wings joined his back. Andrew was just waiting for the goblin-wolf hybrid to take one final step away from the house before he wasted it - regardless of his anger, Andrew wasn’t about to purposefully harm the house. He wasn’t entirely sure he could, anyway.</p>
<p>Instead, the other two creatures finally pulled to their feet and took one look at Andrew and Kevin’s raptor form behind them before taking off for the relative safety of the house itself.</p>
<p>Andrew cursed, froze one, then the goblin mid-step just like he had with Neil on the road, and just as he went to freeze the third, the harpy made it up the steps and to the front door. For a split second Andrew thought the house would let her in too, but he exhaled as the door refused to budge under her forceful yanks. Then he started to laugh - a low and almost gut wrenching sound that lacked any resemblance to mirth - as she turned to face him, her dirty, mottled, half-broken wings flaring out beside her in an attempt to look menacing.</p>
<p>But before Andrew could come up with a good attack plan, she suddenly caught fire.</p>
<p>It started with her wings where they had flared out to either side brushing against the wooden colonnades of the porch, then spread like wildfire to her body, her oily feathers acting like kindling to the flame. It was a bright red fire, the color of fresh animal blood as it meets oxygen, one solid rippling color that spread over her form, bathing her in a flickering glow but never straying to try and lick at the wooden porch beneath her feet.</p>
<p>Then she started to scream, and it wasn’t just a scream of pain, nor one of the sheer terror of certain death, it was more akin to the scream of a banshee - high pitched, ear-piercing, and echoching off the forest around them. She tried to run, the flames refusing to catch on the stairs beneath her feet, nor the bright green grass of the lawn, but transferring easily when she got within a foot of her companions, their frozen bodies soon covered with the same rippling, undying, unchanging, red flame.</p>
<p>The flame made short work of the three of them, and when it had burned itself out all that was left were piles of ash and a few stray feathers fluttering in the soft breeze that slipped through the trees, blowing the scent of death and dying away from the clearing. Andrew didn’t wait to see if the ash remained or if it sunk back into the ground - dust to dust and ashes to ashes, or whatever that child’s tale was.</p>
<p>Andrew slid off of Kevin’s back, running for the front door, past the unscorched porch, the pristine door, easily pulling the handle and letting himself inside.</p>
<p>Finally - <i>finally</i> - falling to his knees beside Neil’s immobile form still sprawled unconscious in the entry.</p>
<p>Andrew didn’t expect the rush of adrenaline spiking through his veins, his magic pushing at his mental barriers and pulling at his blood to let it out, let it loose. It felt like losing control, and it felt like grief, and when he finally found Neil’s pulse it felt like falling.</p>
<p>His fingers started to shake against the warm skin of Neil’s wrist, and Andrew was glad Kevin was still in his raptor form outside as he would surely give him shit for losing his cool if he could see Andrew’s lack of composure right now. As it was he could probably sense the turbulence in his mind regardless.</p>
<p><i>“He’s alive, just unconscious,”</i> Andrew told Kevin, trying to keep his tone unaffected even in the safety of unspoken words. <i>“Can you check the perimeter, see if there are any more lurking about?”</i></p>
<p>Kevin answered with an audible huff that Andrew heard, even from inside the house, but knew his friend had agreed when the rustle of wings signaled his take off.</p>
<p>Andrew took just a moment to close his eyes, pull in a shaky breath, hold it, then slowly let it back out. As he breathed, his fingers never leaving the soft skin of Neil’s wrist, his own heart started to even out, the beat a double time to Neil’s more average heartbeat, the tempo falling into place as if Neil was the metronome for the score of Andrew’s lifebreath.</p>
<p>“Andrew, you okay?” came a soft voice from behind him, pulling him out of the calm and darkness that he’d momentarily hidden in.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I’m fine,” he responded gruffly, not needing to turn to see his twin had appeared unbidden at his side.</p>
<p>“What happened to him this time? Didn’t I just fix him like two days ago?” Aaron huffed in response, ignoring the slight catch he surely noticed in Andrew’s voice.</p>
<p>“Dumbass decided to play martyr, used his powers despite the damn curse that’s branded across his arms,” Andrew replied.</p>
<p>“Ah, got a twisted sense of self-preservation this one does,” Aaron said as he inspected Neil's eyes, checked his pulse, felt around his neck for any signs of concussion or spinal trauma. “He’s bleeding too, back here,” Aaron noted as his fingers skimmed along one of the tatters of Neil’s shirt and came back blue.</p>
<p>“Got caught from behind by a goblin-wolf hybrid thing,” Andrew replied as he helped Aaron pick up Neil’s lithe body and carry it towards the hall that would inevitably lead them to a guest room and medical supplies.</p>
<p>Aaron didn’t respond to that, but made a face of displeasure that Andrew understood and completely agreed with. Goblins and werewolves were bad enough on their own, and they were not species that normally deemed the other worth acknowledging. Werewolves were a pack based society, while goblins were usually loners who wandered the world, picking fights and causing mischief wherever they went. They weren’t two species Andrew had ever known to mix before, and seeing the outcome, he wasn’t sure he wanted to ever see it again in this lifetime.</p>
<p>When they got Neil into a bed, face down this time so Aaron could repair the damage to his back, Aaron ushered Andrew out of the room.</p>
<p>“You look like death warmed over and half eaten by Cerberus. Go get cleaned up and take a nap. This won’t take long and I don’t need your anxious hovering while I’m working,” Aaron said, not unkindly, but in a voice that brooked no argument with his instructions.</p>
<p>Andrew could still argue, and had in the past, but he’d seen the injuries and knew they weren’t life threatening despite their gruesome appearance. He also knew the almost imperceptible hitch in his breathing when he’d seen the expanse of it was enough of an indicator that, for whatever reason, he was more affected by this one than any of the other misfits they’d brought back to the house and patched up.</p>
<p>Andrew nodded, relenting to Aaron’s professional medical stare, and clapped his brother on the shoulder as a thank you before throwing up a protection field on the house and heading for the spiral staircase down the hall that would hopefully lead him to his bedroom.</p><hr/>
<p>Andrew woke a few hours later to find Aaron passed out in the chair, an exact mirror of the other morning. Pulling his mind from the haze of sleep, Andrew reached out to Kevin, asking for an all clear, but all he got in return was silence.</p>
<p>Checking the clock again Andrew realized they’d well passed sunset and he pulled himself out of bed and into his customary form-fitted black pants and a long sleeved grey shirt that was well-worn and soft against his skin. He bypassed his collared jacket, grabbing an extra set of clothes for Kevin, and headed for the attic.</p>
<p>Andrew found Kevin just where he expected to, curled up under a pile of hay, fast asleep and in his human form. He dumped the pile of clothes he’d brought with him on top of his head, startling Kevin awake. Kevin slid one hand up from under the pile of clothes and opened his eyes to glare at Andrew, the effect lessened by the riotous state of his wavy, black hair - sticking up every which way after a month of not being washed, and intertwined with hay.</p>
<p>“Good evening, sleepy head,” Andrew said, smirking at Kevin’s glare.</p>
<p>“Come on Andrew, I’ve only been asleep for like an hour, you know how tired shifting makes me,” Kevin complained, his voice like honey and whiskey and gravel after almost a month of disuse.</p>
<p>“You can sleep tonight like the rest of us. Why don’t you throw on some clothes and come check on our newest resident with me. Aaron’s finished patching him up,” Andrew said.</p>
<p>Kevin hesitated. Not in putting on the clothes, which he did as quickly as his gangly limbs would allow as he was always cold in his human form, but in his response to Andrew’s suggestion.</p>
<p>“Do you think it’s safe if I show him who I am?” Kevin asked while his back was turned to Andrew, pausing as he slid the shirt fully over his head and his long muscular arms. “He knows me in this form,” Kevin continued, not waiting for Andrew to give an answer, “and although he doesn’t seem to be in league with his father or the Moriyama’s since they’re clearly trying to kill him, that doesn’t mean he won’t sell me out as a bargaining chip.”</p>
<p>“But what if he doesn’t?” Andrew asked quietly, cutting through Kevin’s fear to the real crux of his hesitation.</p>
<p>What if Neil remembered Kevin? Remembered what Kevin suffered at the hands of the Moriyamas as a child, and sympathized with him. What if that made him trust them? What if he agreed to help them take down the Moriyamas’ entire magpyphon clan?</p>
<p>It was everything Kevin had been looking for, and it very well may burn him in the process. Andrew couldn’t answer this question for Kevin, couldn’t force him to risk his own safety in exchange for retribution. That decision was his and his alone.</p>
<p>“You’ve got another couple days until the end of this moon cycle. You can’t turn back until then anyways, so think about it. I’m sure if you ask nicely the house will keep Neil away from you until then, assuming he plans on staying this time around,” Andrew responded when Kevin only stared at him in silence, his green eyes steady on Andrew - the one part of him that never changed no matter what form he took.</p>
<p>Finally Kevin nodded, and Andrew took that as a sign of agreement at least.</p>
<p>“Hang out up here for another minute or two, I’ll go check on the menace,” Andrew said, already heading for the door and the innumerable amount of steps that most likely awaited him between here and the room where Neil was resting.</p>
<p>“I’ll go make something for dinner, eat with me in an hour or so?” Kevin offered, just as Andrew reached the doorway.</p>
<p>“Only if you don’t make that baked pasta dish with the dirt tasting green stuff in it,” Andrew agreed, tossing his customary two fingered salute to Kevin over his shoulder, a small smile pulling at the corners of his lips when Kevin’s only response was to huff in good-natured annoyance.</p><hr/>
<p>This time when Neil woke, he wasn’t alone.</p>
<p>Normally that realization would be disconcerting, but opening his eyes to find the blond haired, intriguing creature who could almost have been mistaken as human if not for the short, gray horns that curled from the sides of his head, was surprisingly comforting. Neil knew the mask he wore covered an immense power kept firmly in check on most occasions, but Neil had sensed it first hand. If he didn’t know any better, he’d assume the creature was a rare form of demi-god, or minor demon.</p>
<p>“Never did get your name,” Neil croaked, clearing his throat of the sleep that still clouded it.</p>
<p>“Never offered it,” Andrew replied. “Not very smart to give away your name to complete strangers.”</p>
<p>“Never said I gave you my real one,” Neil responded sarcastically, barely holding back the urge to stick his tongue out at the creature.</p>
<p>“Naive of you to think that matters, <i>Neil</i>,” Andrew said, infusing power behind the name, noticing as Neil’s eyes lit up with fear.</p>
<p>“I won’t use it. I just wanted to warn you against giving it away,” Andrew assured him after his point was made, cutting off the spell after only a second or two.</p>
<p>“Well, I gave you mine, it’s only fair you give me yours,” Neil said, letting his lower lip push down in a small pout that Andrew only crooked one eyebrow at.</p>
<p>“Andrew,” Andrew replied eventually, knowing regardless of the knowledge, Neil didn’t have the power to use that against him anyways - at least not with his own power. There was nothing stopping him from giving it away, but oddly the trust didn’t feel like a risk to Andrew.</p>
<p>“Andrew,” Neil said slowly, as if he was savoring the feel of the syllables on his tongue.</p>
<p>“Are they dead?” Neil asked next, grimacing a little bit at the pull in his back when he shifted onto his side instead of laying flat on his stomach.</p>
<p>“Yes, the house took care of it actually. I think you’re growing on it,” Andrew responded, as if houses killing people was a normal occurrence.</p>
<p>“Must be growing on you too if you patched me up again,” Neil retorted, smiling. A rare, more real looking smile than any of the others Andrew had received; a smile that covered his canines and brought out the small dimples in his cheeks.</p>
<p>“That was the work of my brother, but my offer for help still stands. You’re welcome to stay around for a while,” Andrew replied, ignoring how easily he offered up the sanctuary of this place to a dangerous stranger, how much the idea of Neil staying made his pulse pick up minutely.</p>
<p>“I might take you up on that this time,” Neil replied ruefully. “Being here seems safer than out there; they’ve got too many of them on my trail for me to shake right now.”</p>
<p>“That’s fine, they won’t get past the house anyways. Not now that it’s accepted you,” Andrew said.</p>
<p>“I almost feel bad for insulting it earlier,” Neil replied, sending a silent thank you into the ether, hoping the house understood the gratitude Neil felt when his hand had closed on the handle earlier and it had opened for him easily.</p>
<p>“Aaron says you should limit your movement for a couple days, the cuts on your back are mostly healed, but that goblin-wolf’s talons were coated in a nasty poison, and combined with stupidly draining your magic with that curse on your arms, and then passing out, it’ll take a few days before the wounds fully close and he can take the stitches out,” Andrew advised, picking up the covered dishes that were next to him on the table and bringing them to Neil’s side table.</p>
<p>“Here’s some food, I didn’t know what you’d prefer.”</p>
<p>“Thank you,” Neil replied, pulling himself gently to sit back against the cool silk of the pillows piled on the bed behind him. He lifted the cover off the food tray and groaned softly as the delicious smell of vegetable medley drifted to his nose followed by the honeyed smell of freshly baked bread.</p>
<p>“This smells delicious,” Neil replied, reaching for the bowl with both hands and settling it on his blanket covered knees so he could breathe in the wonderful aroma.</p>
<p>“I’ll pass along your compliments. In the meantime, you’re welcome to stay here, or any other guest room in the house, although as you’ve already noticed it’s sometimes hard to find where you’re wanting to go. If you do leave the room, try not to get lost again. Call my name if you need me, the house or Renee will let me know,” Andrew advised, backing slowly towards the door once Neil was situated, food and a glass of water nearby, blankets covering the bed and more than enough pillows propped up behind him.</p>
<p>“Renee?” Neil asked between bites of the soup.</p>
<p>“She’s the resident fire sprite, she said you met in the library,” Andrew replied.</p>
<p>“If by ‘met’ she means that she whispered orders behind my back without revealing herself and tried to burn me when I picked up books, then sure, we met,” Neil said sarcastically.</p>
<p>Andrew just shrugged and raised an eyebrow. “Sleep well, Neil,” he said as he slipped out of the door, closing it on Neil’s whispered, “Goodnight, Andrew.”</p><hr/>
<p>When the moon cycle ended, Kevin shifted back into raptor form, still not having revealed himself to Neil, and although Andrew respected Kevin’s decision to keep his own secret, he was glad when the other man changed back into his animal form as it meant Andrew could spend more time with Neil while Kevin was off hunting and flying around the mountains.</p>
<p>It was on one such day that Andrew found Neil curled up with a book in one of Andrew’s favorite places in the library, tucked away in a corner filled with sunlight that was still hidden from the main stairwell and the big glass windows. He was flipping slowly through a mystery novel written by a traveling centaur from the 3rd Century, his legs and tail flopped over one arm of the chair, his mess of curls resting against the other. Andrew was taken aback by the warmth that spread through him at the sight, Neil lazy and happy and ensconced in Andrew’s chair reading one of his favorite books.</p>
<p>Settled in the sun like a cat, Neil was prettier than any creature had the right to be, and Andrew was tempted to break his own rules of touch and run his fingers through Neil’s red curls and over the fur of his pointed ears.</p>
<p>Neil looked up as Andrew walked over to his hiding place, smiling at his appearance.</p>
<p>“You weren’t kidding, this writer is an absolute genius. I can’t believe he traveled to so many places just to find one killer,” Neil said, shoving his finger in his spot and closing the book on his chest.</p>
<p>“I’m glad you like it, it’s the only copy that still exists,” Andrew said, sitting in a nearby chair with his own novel.</p>
<p>“Woah, really? How’d you get it?” Neil asked.</p>
<p>“Won it off him in a bet a week after he finished it,” Andrew replied, smirking slightly at the memory.</p>
<p>“And you never created more copies?” Neil asked, surprised.</p>
<p>“He made me promise that it would never leave my possession,” Andrew replied, shrugging at Neil’s exasperation. “I know, I thought it was too good not to share, but those were the rules of the agreement.”</p>
<p>“Well, at least I get to read this copy,” Neil replied happily. “Do you have any other unique ones like it?”</p>
<p>“A few,” Andrew replied. “They’re over on that small half wall underneath the main staircase.”</p>
<p>“Oh perfect, I’m going to grab a few to take back to my room with me, okay?” Neil replied, springing gracefully out of his chair, his tail brushing faintly against Andrew’s arm as he passed.</p>
<p>“I’ll be here,” Andrew replied, shivering at the warmth that trailed up his arm from the slightest brush of Neil’s tail. He watched the redhead as he turned through the stacks until he disappeared from Andrew’s sight, faintly hearing the click of a latch as Neil opened one of the windows and let in a soft breeze that smelled like summer and the woodsy scent of the forest.</p>
<p>Andrew returned to his book, eyes coasting over the words without really comprehending them, his mind analyzing the feeling of warmth and genuine happiness that filled Andrew whenever he was in Neil’s presence.</p>
<p>He was startled out of his internal reverie by an inhuman screeching followed by the crashing of shattered glass and the muffled sounds of fighting. Andrew reacted in an instant when he heard Neil’s cry of pain over the unending shrieking that still echoed through the room, punching through the barrier in his mind that separated him from his alternate form and transporting across the library in an instant.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>On the other side of the library, Neil was caught completely by surprise, too easily taking for granted the comfort and safety of the house after only a few weeks staying there. Not even his keen senses picked up Lola - his father’s cruel right-hand - before her screams shattered the glass windows and her arms wrapped around him with startling strength.</p>
<p>Neil struggled fruitlessly against the female banshee’s strength and her wicked long knife, which had already cut one lucky slash down Neil’s left arm. He wrapped his tail desperately around the banister, one arm held against his ears as blood trickled from his ear drums from her unholy screams.</p>
<p>Lola had come prepared, the protection charms she wore all over her outfit the only reason she’d been able to get into the house at all, and Neil fought with everything he had, trying desperately to get some leverage, or a weapon, or anything to help hold the knife away from his face and stop her ear drum bursting screeches from pulling him into unconsciousness. Still it was a losing battle, he could already feel his hold on consciousness starting to slip, and he barely registered the knife as it glanced another gash off the hand he had out in front of him trying to block it’s path.</p>
<p>Neil almost didn’t recognize Andrew when he appeared, seemingly from out of the bookshelves themselves. His entire body glowed a heavenly blue, the shimmer bouncing off his skin and clothes alike, swirling like the night sky across his skin, his hair, even the flowing length of his black, collared jacket. But it was his eyes that really caught and held Neil’s limited remaining grasp on consciousness; they burned like a red hot fire, like the power of a star - brilliant and angry and ethereal.</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>Neil was used to anger. He’d seen it in many forms, many manifestations, but never like this, never filled with such raw power that the very press of it in the air felt like it could crush Neil’s bones.</p>
<p>But it didn’t.</p>
<p>Neil watched in awe, eyes fixed on the never-ending fire of Andrew’s eyes, as that power wrapped around Lola in a vice grip, shoving its way down her throat and cutting off the terrible noise. Neil slumped against the banister in relief as Andrew’s power yanked Lola away from him, hanging her in midair as she struggled uselessly against the dark blue vines that snaked around her.</p>
<p>“Who sent you?” the Andrew that wasn’t exactly Andrew asked. His voice echoed in the space, as if it was coming from leagues away, reverberating through Neil’s mind and his ears, a dark rumbling noise that had existed for centuries, and would exist for centuries more.</p>
<p>This was Andrew’s real form. And although Neil knew he should be terrified, should run from the immense amount of power Andrew contained, he couldn’t help but gravitate towards the ethereal being, the rage in his eyes mirroring the rage in Neil’s soul.</p>
<p>Surprisingly to Neil, Lola answered, through gritted teeth - as if the truth was being dragged out of her by force.</p>
<p>“The Sorcerer Wesninski. He wants his son back.”</p>
<p>“He can’t have him,” that bottomless voice responded, unflinching, an unarguable truth.</p>
<p>“He will get him eventually, he always gets what he wants,” Lola responded tauntingly, turning her head toward Neil with a terrifying, demented sort of smile.</p>
<p>“Where is he?” the voice demanded, Andrew’s face a balanced mask of rage and unfaltering control.</p>
<p>Lola pushed her lips shut, desperately trying not to answer the question, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth and biting down hard, but in the end she lost the battle against whatever compulsion Andrew commanded.</p>
<p>“Evermore, paying a visit to the magpyphon kingdom and the new king.”</p>
<p>“Who is taking Kengo’s place?” came the next demand, and Neil faltered at the question, at the understanding and the knowledge Andrew seemed to have about things he had no right to know.</p>
<p>“Ichirou Moriyama is king now. Kengo is dead and the Moriyama reign will only grow,” Lola replied, her voice dripping in disdain despite the absolute lack of any control she had in the situation. Her blind faith in the Moriyama empire sent a shudder of terror down Neil’s spine. Kengo had been a monster; villainous and cruel, and unremorseful.</p>
<p>His son, Ichirou, was rumored to be even colder.</p>
<p>“Not for long,” came Andrew’s reply. “Not that you’ll be around to see his end.” And before Lola could respond, before Neil even had time to process the threat, the vice grip of Andrew’s power increased, crushing the banshee’s bones, burning through her skin and hair and across her limbs until nothing was left but a sprinkling of dust littered among the glass that lined the library floor.</p>
<p>When Neil looked back up, his mind still trying to grasp the fact that Lola - the torment of his childhood, the ghost that haunted his nightmares and inflicted at least half of the scars that littered Neil’s body - was dead, Neil found Andrew shifted back into his normal self, slumping back against the library wall in exhaustion.</p>
<p>“Andrew,” Neil exclaimed, running for him instantly, his boots crunching over the shards of glass and specks of dust underneath him.</p>
<p>“Andrew, are you okay?” Neil asked desperately, reaching out a hand to steady the other man before he could slip all the way to the ground.</p>
<p>“Neil,” Andrew responded quietly, leaning an arm against Neil’s shoulders. “What happened?”</p>
<p>Neil barely had time to register the question at all before Andrew was slumping against him, completely unconscious.</p>
<p>“Shit,” Neil muttered to himself, ignoring the blood that dripped down his arm and onto the floor as he did his best to support Andrew with his uninjured arm, avoiding getting blood on his stunning and no doubt expensive black coat.</p>
<p>Neil was about to call for Renee, hoping she had some idea how to help him get Andrew upstairs, when he heard a loud caw from behind him and turned to find Andrew’s raptor outside, body pressed flat to the ground, it’s large head poked almost comically through the window.</p>
<p>“Oh thank fuck,” Neil said, throwing up a prayer to the house or Renee or whoever controlled the fate of this world, before looking over his shoulder again.</p>
<p>“I don’t know if you can understand me, but can you help? Or get help? I don’t know what to do. We were attacked, he transformed, now he’s unconscious and I can’t carry him by myself,” Neil rushed out, starting to ramble a little in his panic. If he didn’t know any better he could have sworn the bird hybrid’s spring green eyes widened as Neil said Andrew transformed, but he didn’t have time to analyze it as the creature nodded stiffly in acknowledgement to Neil’s words before shuffling back out of the window and taking off, quickly disappearing from Neil’s view.</p>
<p>Neil waited, forcing himself not to hold his breath, hoping that nod meant the creature would be getting help - maybe finding Renee, or Andrew’s mysterious doctor brother. It wasn’t long before Neil got his answer. A dull flash of light from outside, the sound of muffled cursing, and then a human looking male appeared in the window. He was haphazardly dressed in a pair of extremely loose tan trousers and a black shirt that hugged every curve and muscle along his chest and arms. His messy black hair fell around his face and ears, and he climbed awkwardly through the broken window before blowing the strands out of his eyes and meeting Neil’s gaze with familiar bright green eyes.</p>
<p>“Kevin?” Neil asked in awe, his brain barely registering what his eyes were showing him.</p>
<p>“Hello Nathaniel,” Kevin said quietly as he picked his way across the room.</p>
<p>“You’re alive? You’re here? What the hell?” Neil asked, one question tumbling after the other out of his mouth.</p>
<p>“It’s a long story. But there is a lot to go over, and I promise we’ll fill you in on all of it later,” Kevin replied, smiling gently at Neil. “Until then. I’ll take his feet and we can get him upstairs?”</p>
<p>“Oh, uh, yeah, let’s go,” Neil replied, still completely awestruck.</p>
<p>They made it up the stairs and into the hallway, and Kevin took Andrew from Neil completely, cradling him in his arms as if he weighed nothing at all.</p>
<p>“You’re hurt,” Kevin noted, concern lacing his voice as his eyes swept across the blood that still flowed down Neil’s arm and over his fingers, drops of it falling onto the hall carpet before immediately disappearing.</p>
<p>“Oh, yeah, banshee knife,” Neil responded, pulling the arm of his sleeve away from the gash so Kevin could see it. Kevin winced in sympathy and Neil grimaced at the jagged cut running the length of his forearm, elbow to wrist, right through the middle of Neil’s curse marks.</p>
<p>“Follow me then, Aaron will meet us in Andrew’s room and he can patch you up,” Kevin responded, striding down the hallway as if he knew where he was going, or had any idea how to get there.</p>
<p>Neil followed behind, cradling his injured arm against his chest, hoping to stem some of the bleeding as the loss of blood was starting to go to his head. He made it to Andrew’s room, barely registering Andrew’s brother Aaron, who was apparently his twin, through the haze of his vision. Neil vaguely remembered being shuffled around and then sat in a chair as Aaron fixed up his arm, his hand, his ears - which were apparently also still bleeding - and a multitude of other small cuts he didn’t remember getting. Neil was wrapped in a warm blanket and snuggled into a big soft bed, and Kevin’s promise to watch over them while they slept was the last thing Neil heard before the darkness of sleep overran his brain and he fell into a magically dreamless sleep.</p><hr/>
<p>Neil woke hours later, the sky he could glimpse through the window was lit with the dim purplish-red of twilight as the sun sunk slowly below the horizon. The house was quiet, the only noise a soft rustling of wind through the trees outside.</p>
<p>Inside the room glowed with amber light from the lamp on the side table, and next to it sat Kevin still in his human form, clearly focused on reading the book he had propped on one knee. Neil rolled over slowly, careful of his bandaged arm, and found Andrew on the other side of the bed. He was blinking awake slowly, blond hair half covering the sleepy hazel of his eyes.</p>
<p>“Hey,” Neil said softly, turning his head to face Andrew. “You okay?”</p>
<p>“Mmhh,” Andrew mumbled, reaching one hand out of the blankets that were piled on him to rub at his eyes which made Neil smile fondly. Sleep mussed Andrew was so much softer than the sharp lines, stern face, and witty remarks of his usual demeanor.</p>
<p>“It seems I should be asking you that,” Andrew replied eventually, reaching one finger out to tap lightly on the bandages around Neil’s arm, the touch so feather-light Neil wouldn’t have known it happened if he hadn’t been watching.</p>
<p>“Nothing I can’t handle,” Neil replied easily. When Andrew scowled at him he added, “Aaron patched me up, I’ll be good as new in no time.”</p>
<p>Andrew still didn’t seem convinced, but he nodded all the same, moving his hand back to lay between them in the middle of the expansive bed.</p>
<p>“What happened?” Andrew asked eventually, looking behind Neil to Kevin, who Neil assumed had finally put his book down.</p>
<p>“You’ll have to ask Nath… Neil that one, I only arrived to help carry you upstairs,” Kevin advised calmly, stumbling slightly over Neil’s birth name.</p>
<p>“You asked that before you passed out too. What do you mean what happened? You were there the whole time,” Neil asked, confused by the grimace on Andrew’s face and the way his arm retracted from the middle ground it had opened up between them to tuck tightly around his body again. Protected and cut off.</p>
<p>It was Kevin who answered Neil’s question. “When Andrew transforms he can’t remember anything that happens in his other form.”</p>
<p>Neil kept his eyes on Andrew despite Kevin’s explanation, watching as Andrew tried to smooth over the fear that still sat clearly in his features, and Neil knew, instinctively, that Andrew hated that. Hated the not knowing, the gaps in his otherwise impeccable memory, the vulnerability of losing control.</p>
<p>Neil took a breath, and offered up his own vulnerability in return. “As a kid I refused to use the magic I got from my father. He sent me to train at Evermore - that’s where I met Kevin. When my mom and I ran, the only time I used that magic was to kill the creatures he sent after us. So, when he finally caught up to us the last time, he cursed me so that anytime I use the magic at all, even to heal myself, I pass out.</p>
<p>“The healing power, it isn’t like Aaron’s magic, I can’t use it on others. It’s instinctual. I don’t have to cast a spell, or call on it; it’s automatic, intrinsic, a failsafe, so whenever I’m hurt the power automatically tries to fix it, tries to keep me safe.”</p>
<p>Neil paused for a second, closing his eyes tight before admitting the last part, the part that scared the hell out of him just like Andrew’s transformations must scare him.</p>
<p>“After he cursed me, my dad and Lola and her siblings, they all tortured me. Trying to get me to break, to see if I would pass out from blood loss before I lost the fight of keeping my own magic at bay.”</p>
<p>Neil could hear the shocked breath Kevin inhaled behind him. But he knew the horrors Kevin must have seen with a childhood in Evermore; he remembered the fear in Kevin’s eyes back then when he saw Tetsuji’s cane, or when Riko’s eyes would light up with a new - usually terrible - idea.</p>
<p>Andrew’s face was carefully unresponsive, but Neil hoped his admission soothed Andrew’s fears; a story to help him pull the tattered edges of his emotions back into check.</p>
<p>Truth for a truth.</p>
<p>In return Neil basked in the apathy that Andrew wore so well, used the lack of reaction and pity to center himself - to pull himself away from the brink of those memories. Finally Neil pushed himself into a sitting position, propping up the pillow behind him, thinking the conversations ahead were probably better to do sitting up.</p>
<p>Then Neil turned to Kevin to relay the events of earlier, giving Andrew the space he needed to deal with hearing about the actions he didn’t remember. He told Kevin about Lola, and the protection charms she was wearing - as if she had known to come prepared to fight the house too. Told him how her banshee screams had left his ears ringing, forcing him to try and block the overwhelming sound from his delicate senses and fend her off at the same time. Finally, he explained Andrew’s intervention, leaving out the details of how ethereal he’d looked in that moment; leaving out the absolute awe Neil had felt, the sense of security and comfort that came in the power rolling off of Andrew in waves.</p>
<p>Instead he related the conversation with Lola, the compulsion, and her eventual demise. In clinical terms, as simple as possible, relaying the important information only. Not knowing if sticking to the facts would help, or if Andrew would prefer to know every word, every action, every minute detail.</p>
<p>When Andrew didn’t comment, and Kevin only interjected to ask for clarification, Neil moved on to the next pressing issue on his mind.</p>
<p>“So are you ever going to tell me how you, Kevin Day, ended up here, in a magic house in the middle of fucking no-where, living with a demi-god? How’d you get away?”</p>
<p>Kevin’s face turned dark for a few seconds, his expression closing off as if he was hoping he could get away without having this conversation with Neil.</p>
<p>“Look, you don’t have to tell me, I remember what it was like there and I was only around for a few months. I’m just glad you got out,” Neil added quickly, backtracking from the mask of devastation Kevin now wore.</p>
<p>“It’s okay,” Kevin said after a moment. “It was a while ago now, a few decades. Riko got scared after a while. He realized that I could shift into bigger, stronger animals than he could control, and eventually he started locking me up, forcing me to shift into different animals and then sticking me in a cage just big enough to turn around in.”</p>
<p>Neil didn’t flinch away from Kevin’s story, but the anger in his belly burned like wildfire through his veins, pulling at the magic held there, begging him to use it against his tormentors and Kevin’s, and whoever had hurt Andrew too - whoever made him afraid of his own magic and traumatized him so much that he didn’t remember what happened when he used it. Damn the consequences, Neil would burn the world down if it meant retribution for the pain they’d experienced. But Neil tamped the feeling down, quieting the urge just like he’d learned to do with the healing, forcing it to calm down and wait.</p>
<p>“I didn’t know why at first, I thought we were still family back then, still half-brothers, but one of the days Tetsuji didn’t realize I was in the room. I was in mouse form, and I’d gotten stuck in a trap and Riko had left. <i>‘You got yourself into this mess, you can get yourself out, Kevin.’</i></p>
<p>“So I overheard a conversation, something about my mom and how when she’d died she sent out a letter to my birth father regarding my existence, but that they’d intercepted the messenger and killed him. It was the first time I realized that I wasn’t meant for that life, I wasn’t even their family. I was just a powerful toy that Riko wanted to keep broken and locked away. So I used Riko’s fear against him, but instead of turning into the biggest creature I could think of, I turned into the smallest. I crawled out of the foundations of that castle as an ant, waiting until I made it into the thick of the mountains before transforming into the raptor form I use now and flying as far and as fast as I could.</p>
<p>“Andrew found me exhausted, drained, and stuck in that form a few months later. I’d never stayed in one form so long, and I didn’t realize that if I didn’t shift back at least once every moon-cycle I got stuck. He was the first creature I’d met who could talk to me, who understood me - the human me, not the animal. He used his magic to get me back into human form and protected me until I could shift again. We’ve been roaming together ever since.”</p>
<p>“I’m glad you got out Kevin, you always were way too good for that place,” Neil said, quietly. Then he turned to Andrew and added, “You have a thing for strays, hmm?”</p>
<p>The glare he got in response made Neil hum happily before he asked the biggest question of the evening. The one that had been weighing on him since he woke up.</p>
<p>“So what’s next then? My father, and most likely the Moriyamas too if Lola was right about Ichirou’s ascension, will send more creatures after me soon. I don’t want to put you guys in danger when they do.”</p>
<p>Andrew scoffed, the hand he’d curled protectively back into himself earlier reaching out to knock Neil in the back of the head gently.</p>
<p>“I may not remember what I said to that bitch earlier, but I meant it nonetheless. None of them are going to live long enough to see Ichirou’s ascension to power if I have any say in the matter,” Andrew replied easily, a small spark of the rage Neil had seen in the library starting to glimmer in the hazel of his eyes.</p>
<p>“I’m in too,” Kevin said, his grim expression turning slightly feral, a look more fitting of a fox or a raccoon, but it looked terrifyingly justified on Kevin’s human face.</p>
<p>Neil looked between them, the solid strength, the easy confidence, the firm determination, and realized that he was finally done running. Finally he could do what every instinct had always demanded of him; he could turn and fight too - with his new friends at his back. “I’d say I hope you two know what you’re getting yourselves into, but I have a feeling you already do and just don’t particularly care, so fuck it, let’s do this.”</p><hr/>
<p>It took a few days to plan their raid, Andrew and Neil holed up in the library with the help of Renee who flitted in and out of the air by Andrew’s elbow bringing maps of the area, any known sources on castle Evermore, and any documentation the library held on the Moriyamas themselves.</p>
<p>The Moriyamas were a rare form of gryphon hybrid. They still had the body, legs, and tail of a lion, but the head and wings of a magpie. They called themselves magpyphons, believing themselves somehow more intelligent than their bird counterparts and more imperious than their gryphon brethren. They’d isolated themselves in the mountains north of Colyum, building a castle and furthering their supposed “master race” of gryphon. They’d long since hunted other hybrid clans into extinction, the original gryphons themselves the only existent hybrid species left - and the few of them that there were had scattered across the continent.</p>
<p>For all the Moriyamas tried to denounce their magpie roots, claiming themselves to be more intelligent and superior to the mere animal creatures they came from, they were still wildly cunning, and maintained a habit of hoarding things away in their stronghold: other powerful creatures, pets, captives, and anything else they felt was useful to their empire.</p>
<p>That’s how Neil found a way into the castle.</p>
<p>Kevin had volunteered at first, despite his obvious reluctance, to sneak into the castle in some small rodent or bird form, but Andrew and Neil had both shot that down immediately. They knew if Kevin went back to Evermore, he needed to do it in his raptor form, with the power to not only annihilate the bastards who had kept him locked up for so many years, but also to have the strength and speed to escape again if needed.</p>
<p>Neil knew he was the weakest link in their trio, he didn’t have any other shapes to shift into, no divine powers to pull on. All he had was his father’s magic, which was a last resort anyways, and the increased agility and hearing he got from his mother’s fox heritage. It was the latter he used to his advantage now as he hid in the cover of night and relied on his perfect eyesight to sneak his way through the castle gates as they closed for the night.</p>
<p>His job was to find a hideout on the castle walls, take out as many guards as he could without being noticed before midnight, and then give the signal to Kevin and Andrew to swoop in once everyone had taken their place in the courtyard for the crowning ceremony. Andrew had armed Neil with a bandolier of knives, nodding in understanding when Neil assured him he knew how to use them - just another lesson learned from his father that Neil would use against him now.</p>
<p>Neil waited in the shadows of the main gate as the guards did their final rounds, checking entrances for the night before the shifts rotated. He watched in silent fury as the creatures the Moriyamas considered “lesser” wandered through the castle yard completing menial tasks, cleaning and prepping for the ceremony that would occur later. A ceremony they wouldn’t even be invited to join.</p>
<p>When the time ticked just past the hour before midnight, Neil snuck up to the ramparts, slowly making his way along the edge, felling one guard after another with a quick knife to the back, or a cuff over the head and a push over the edge. Neil knew from his months there as a child that the guards were just as cruel as Tetsuiji and Riko were, pupils who had learned and thrived at the feet of their masters, so Neil cared very little as his body count slowly ticked higher and higher.</p>
<p>He made it all the way back to the front gate, immediately across from where the raised platform had been constructed for Ichirou and the main family. Neil hovered in the inky blackness under the signal torch, using the shadows cast by the torches as cover.</p>
<p>And he waited.</p>
<p>Waiting was admittedly not Neil’s strongest suit - he’d had much more practice running than he had standing still - but the task at hand kept him grounded. The faint hiss of Kevin’s wings rustling in the forest nearby - a sound only Neil’s fine hearing would pick up on - was a settling reminder that Neil’s new friends were here to back him up.</p>
<p>Finally, the hour ticked closer and closer to midnight, and Neil bottled the fear, using it as kindling to his fury as Tetsuji and Riko, then his father Nathan and Lola’s siblings, and finally Ichirou and his entourage filed out into the crisp night, taking up their assigned spots around the stage. Nathan took a seat of honor at Ichirou’s left, and Neil’s anger was only balanced out by the pleasure of seeing Tetsuiji and Riko relegated to standing in front of the platform - their status as second family not gaining them a spot on the platform.</p>
<p>As all the major players trickled into the courtyard, the magpyphon majority filled in the rest of the area, forming a rowdy crowd in front of the platform. The air around Neil filled with the rustle of wings, the clack of claws against stone, and the caws of excitement echoing off the castle’s walls. All of the attention quieted down as the magpyphon elder took the stage, calling with mental communication, instead of animalistic cries, for silence.</p>
<p>As the elder began to speak, belaboring the legitimacy and tradition of the ascension of power, Neil extracted the pouch of blood wood from his waist, pulling out the contents with one careful hand, and tossed them into the fire.</p>
<p>The effect wasn’t immediate, and it wasn’t startling, but as the blood wood started to burn, the flames began to dance, tendrils of dark, deep red that almost appeared black at times twisting their way through the flames. From far away, even from the courtyard, the change in color and tempo of the fire would be hard to discern, the tendrils that danced in the flames coaxing them to lick farther from their setting like a spinning waltz barely discernible to someone who wasn’t specifically watching for the change.</p>
<p>But Andrew didn’t need to be nearby to see the fire as if he was right next to it, and under the droning of the elder through Neil’s mind, he made out the telltale rustle of trees as Kevin took off, gliding as quietly as possible towards them, both he and Andrew shrouded by a protective shield so the gathering below wouldn’t notice them until it was too late.</p>
<p>Neil watched in wide-eyed wonder as Kevin landed in front of the platform, the shroud of invisibility disappearing as he hit the ground, uncaring of how many magpyphons he crushed under his giant legs, his spiked tail whipping out around him to take out more before the rest could even recognize what had happened. Andrew slid easily down Kevin’s outstretched wings, landing on the platform itself, one of his own knives sliding through an assailant with practiced ease.</p>
<p>Andrew was still in his human form, having warned both Kevin and Neil that he wouldn’t transform unless it was absolutely necessary. Although Andrew’s divine form would give them much more power, neither Kevin nor Neil had argued with him. It was <i>his</i> power after all, he could use it as he saw fit, and they knew he would if he had to in order to get them all out safely.</p>
<p>Amidst the chaos that erupted as Kevin and Andrew touched down, Neil saw Lola’s siblings Romero and DeMaccio sneaking out of the courtyard and into the side yards, looking for escape. Nathan - whose magical attacks were the most concerning for both Andrew and Kevin - followed them off the platform. Neil was sprinting out of his position before he’d even registered the choice to do so, disappearing down the ramparts and into the corridors that lined the courtyard.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Down in the courtyard Kevin had Riko cornered, the crushed form of Tetsuji under his paw - he’d tried to strike at Kevin’s underbelly and gotten too close to his massive hind legs. A roar of revenge and justice clawed its way out of Kevin’s body, and he watched in disdain as Riko cowered before him - all the bravado and strength gone in the face of Kevin’s massive form.</p>
<p>“Not so powerful are you now, <i>brother</i>,” Kevin called, in the magpyon language he’d avoided since the day he left this dingy hellhole behind. And even though he couldn’t smile in this form, Kevin still immensely enjoyed the sound of abject fear that filled Riko’s caw as he called pathetically, “Kevin?” before he fell to the slice of Kevin’s talons and beak.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Andrew smiled in grim triumph as he saw Tetsuji and then Riko fall to Kevin’s mighty form, not seeing any hesitation or fear in his friend’s actions as he finally got to take down his childhood abusers. He’d made his way through the rest of the people surrounding Ichirou on the stage, and barely caught a glimpse of russet curls slipping into the castle’s side corridor before he focused back on the magpyphon in front of him. Ichirou’s coloring was different than Riko and Tetsuji’s, his wings a solid midnight black to their white streaked ones. It was something that set the “elite” apart, or so they thought, but Andrew knew the color of their wings wouldn’t make them die any differently.</p>
<p>Ichirou wasn’t untrained in combat though; he knew how to use his size and wings and talons to his advantage, keeping Andrew on his toes even as he threw spell after spell at the magpyphon only to have them all slide off him like water.</p>
<p>So he had a protection shield too. Probably Neil’s father’s doing, Andrew mused as Ichirou himself didn’t possess any magic. In the end, though, it didn’t make any difference if Andrew couldn’t use his magic to make the fight easier, he still preferred simple cold steel. He sneered as Ichirou finally fell, the wing he’d raised for balance leaving an opening to his heart that Andrew’s knife slid into unhindered.</p>
<p>Before Andrew could even turn to see what the rest of the courtyard looked like, he heard a panicked call in his mind from Kevin, <i>“Fuck, Andrew, they’ve got Neil.”</i></p>
<p>Andrew spun immediately, not caring to watch as Ichirou’s body slumped lifeless against the platform, his eyes searching frantically for Neil and his captors. He found them to the right side of the courtyard, his enhanced eyesight picking out only one of the two bodyguards from earlier, one arm wrapped tightly around Neil pinning both arms to his chest so he couldn’t cast and his other arm holding a jagged edged knife - the edge gleaming sharply in the lamplight, a trickle of blood already running down Neil’s neck from where it had pressed too close.</p>
<p>Andrew growled, echoed by Kevin, as he turned and stalked off the platform heading for Nathan and Neil. Kevin loomed threateningly over Andrew’s shoulder as he continued to take out any attackers with his spiked tail and massive wings, sending them flying into the stone walls.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t get any closer if I were you,” Nathan threatened, a wicked smile spreading across his face. “If you do, dear little Nathaniel here will taste the edge of that knife again. Wonder how much pressure it would take to slice through his windpipe.”</p>
<p>Andrew halted immediately, still at least ten feet from the group, but close enough to see the determination and fury in Neil who scoffed at his father’s taunting. “You and I both know crushing my windpipe is too slow for you, don’t bullshit me.”</p>
<p>“Shut up, worthless son of mine,” Nathan snapped, a spark of magic leaving his fingers. Neil trembled as the pain of it ran through him, biting his lip to keep from making any noise.</p>
<p>“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size, hmm?” Andrew asked, folding his arms contemptuously over his chest.</p>
<p>“What, do you mean you? You’re shorter than junior here. You may have killed Ichirou, but I noticed none of your magic worked against him, so I doubt you’re worth my time anyways,” Nathan scoffed.</p>
<p>“You’re not worth anyone’s time, you worthless scum,” Neil taunted back, clearly not having learned his lesson to keep his goddamn mouth shut.</p>
<p>Part of Andrew wanted to shout at Neil to shut up, to stand down, to let him handle this. He could get them out of here. But another part knew that Neil’s sarcasm and taunting was his way of fighting back; that was his armour, and it was something he admired in Neil as much as he hated the pain that slipped across his friend’s face as his father threw another spell his way. The knife pressed against his jugular again widening the gash there, bright blue blood dripping in a slow stream now down Neil’s neck, disappearing into the collar of his shirt.</p>
<p>Andrew growled again, his patience running very thin with the theatrics and the threats and the blustering.</p>
<p>“You get one chance,” Andrew threatened, his voice dropping, adding some of his power behind the threat. “<i>One chance.</i> Let Neil go and we’ll take you to face the Tribunal, or you die here like the trash you are.”</p>
<p>As he threatened, Andrew spoke to Kevin’s mind warning him, <i>“Be ready when this turns sideways - we’ll need you to fly us out of here.”</i></p>
<p><i>“I’m ready, Andrew,”</i> Kevin replied immediately, hunching down into a position that would make it easier for Andrew and Neil to clamber onto his back.</p>
<p>“Ha,” Nathan laughed off Andrew’s threat, as he expected he would. “No way I’m doing that, I’m the one making demands here.”</p>
<p>“Then you’ve made your choice,” Andrew responded, letting the throwing knife he kept tucked in his sleeve slip down into his palm. Without another warning, or giving time for another taunt, he pulled his arm back and threw the knife - not aiming for Nathan as the sorcerer expected, but for the creature holding Neil.</p>
<p>His aim was perfect, and the creature cried out in pain as the knife lodged deeply in his shoulder, losing complete mobility of his arm and the vice grip he had on Neil’s hands. Neil took the opportunity immediately, sending an elbow into his captor’s stomach, his tail wrapping around his wrist breaking it with a snap - the knife clattering uselessly to the ground.</p>
<p>In the split second it took Neil to break free, Andrew threw another spell at Nathan, hoping to blind side him, but just like Ichirou the spell slipped away from him, repelled by whatever protection charm he’d placed on himself.</p>
<p>“Neil, get out of there,” Andrew demanded, throwing a spell and a knife at Nathan, both of which were repelled with relative ease, his frustration rising with every missed hit.</p>
<p>Neil turned to slip behind Andrew and up onto Kevin, but before he could make it to the safety of Kevin’s wing, Nathan hit him with a spell Andrew didn’t even see him cast.</p>
<p>He watched in horror as a whip of dark red magic snaked from Nathan’s arm, curling around Neil’s legs, slicing deep burn-like gashes through them and yanking him off his feet.</p>
<p>Andrew’s fury was an uncontrollable thing, a raging beast that rampaged through him, smashing his barriers and pulling him into his other form before he could stop the transformation. Even after he changed, the magic sliding over his skin like oil - the shimmering blue of the ocean mixed with the stars of the sky - the rage stayed, burning through his eyes like an exploding sun. Andrew took pride in the fear that immediately settled over Nathan’s features, as the sorcerer realized he sorely underestimated his opponent. He watched in glee as Nathan stumbled backward, one step after another, spells thrown wildly in Andrew’s direction, but none of them even registered against the power that rippled off him in waves.</p>
<p>Controlling the amount of power that flowed through him felt like holding a living, breathing flame; anything that touched it, even spells, shriveled to ash before it got to Andrew, and Andrew stood on the inside; a burning protected center.</p>
<p>As Nathan stumbled, he tried desperately to throw a spell at Neil instead, but Andrew flicked it away in disdain.</p>
<p>“I told you, you got one chance. You failed,” Andrew said to Nathan as he came to a stop over the huddling, pathetic sorcerer. The rumble of his voice echoed off the stones of the castle wall, and it sounded like thunder, and death, and destruction.</p>
<p>Andrew ignored any final pleas that escaped Nathan’s mouth as he finally let the flame of his power wrap around the man, burning slowly from the outside, the smell of charred flesh and screams of the dying wrapping around Andrew until his power slipped into Nathan and burned him from the inside too.</p>
<p>It was over too soon, and yet not soon enough.</p>
<p>Andrew turned away from the pile of ash that used to be Nathan and headed for Neil’s side, dropping to his knees next to him, Kevin already hunched protectively over Neil’s form.</p>
<p>“Can you walk?” he asked softly, his hands hovering over the gashes in Neil’s legs, his soul shying away from the pain he pulled out of Neil and into himself. He didn’t have his brother’s gift for healing, but he knew how to relieve the pain.</p>
<p>“Not without losing too much blood,” Neil responded, the tightness in his eyes and the grit of his teeth starting to ease as Andrew soothed the aching in his limbs.</p>
<p>“Start healing yourself, I’ll transport us all back as soon as I bring this castle down to rubble,” Andrew responded, lifting Neil easily and tucking him securely onto Kevin’s back.</p>
<p>“The civilians, Andrew, you should let them out before you destroy everything,” Neil mumbled, Kevin agreeing in his mind.</p>
<p>“Got it. Kevin’s got you, start healing yourself,” Andrew demanded, waiting for Neil’s tense nod and then watching as his eyes slipped closed, his body slumping against one of Kevin’s wings.</p><hr/>
<p>Neil woke before Andrew, curled up again on what was becoming his side of the massive bed, tucked comfortably under the covers. He didn’t see Kevin in the room this time, but he guessed he was up in his roost in the attic, still much happier in his raptor form than his human one.</p>
<p>As Neil’s brain slowly pulled itself out of the fog of unconsciousness, he took stock of his injuries, testing the movement in his legs and ghosting his fingers along the smooth, seemingly unblemished skin of his neck. He didn’t feel any pain, and he marveled at the combination of his own healing magic, Andrew’s help, and Aaron’s apparent expertise as he eased himself out of bed, finding new pink skin starting to reform in the gashes that had been burned into his legs.</p>
<p>Neil stumbled a little when he started walking, but he made his way quietly out of the room, down one of the random halls, and ended up in the kitchen as he’d hoped. He found a kettle for water and started about making up some breakfast. He stuck it all on a tray - two plates of food, a pot of tea, and two cups - before he headed back to Andrew’s room on silent feet.</p>
<p>Andrew still wasn’t awake when Neil got back in, but he started to shift at the smell of freshly cooked eggs and the weight of Neil slipping back into the bed.</p>
<p>“Good morning, sleepy head,” Neil said quietly, smiling at Andrew’s glare as he rolled over to face Neil. He was coming to realize that Andrew was not a morning person, no matter what time of the day he woke up.</p>
<p>“I brought food, and tea, and jam. One of those things ought to cheer you up,” Neil told him, and Andrew nodded minutely reaching for the jam covered bread with one hand, shoving half of it in his mouth at once, completely unrepentant of the crumbs that fell onto the covers in his haste.</p>
<p>They ate the rest of their breakfast in silence, Andrew humming occasionally in appreciation, the food and tea seeming to bring him back to reality. Finally when they finished, and Neil set the tray aside on the bedside table, Andrew asked the question.</p>
<p>“What happened?”</p>
<p>“The best moment of my life,” Neil answered honestly, snuggling down like Andrew into the warmth of the covers. “You absolutely annihilated my father, saved my life, and then according to Kevin you brought the entirety of Evermore down on itself. All that’s left is a pile of rock and dust.”</p>
<p>“Good,” Andrew agreed, his head burrowing deeper into the pillows. Before he completely fell back asleep again, Andrew reached one arm out and tapped Neil’s cheek with his finger.</p>
<p>“You’re going to stay now, right? No one else is chasing you, you don’t need our protection, but you’re more than welcome here,” Andrew said quietly, as if he was more worried about this answer than the earlier one.</p>
<p>“I’m staying,” Neil assured him, smiling at Andrew’s nod of agreement. Neil reached out his unmarked hand into the space between them, offering his palm up to Andrew, and he smiled as Andrew’s fingers curled around his, lacing themselves between Neil’s like they were meant to be there.</p>
<p>They fell asleep like that, hands intertwined, bellies full, and hearts content in their new found safety, and Andrew wondered while he drifted off to sleep if maybe Neil was the best trouble Andrew had ever found himself in.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Kudos, comments, or come talk to me on tumblr at <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/blog/makebelieveanything"> makebelieveanything </a>.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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